


where do you go

by Spaceperpetuum



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst, Breakups, Chatting & Messaging, Drunk Antics, Emotional Healing, Friends With Benefits, Friendship, Gaming, M/M, Sober Antics, Stress, Support, There is a cat, Underage Drinking, complicated feelings, group chats, questionable decisions
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-31
Updated: 2018-12-31
Packaged: 2019-10-01 00:09:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17233745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spaceperpetuum/pseuds/Spaceperpetuum
Summary: Akaashi Keiji just wanted to pass his writing class. He makes some mistakes trying to find inspiration and unlocks a whole new treasure trove of problems he never expected.Kuroo Tetsurou was just bored with how his life was going, and ended up making things a little bit too interesting.Kenma Kozume adopted a cat.Bokuto Koutarou fell off a chair.And Oikawa Tooru documented the whole thing.Named after ‘where do you go’ by flor.





	where do you go

Sometimes going to the same university as your high school friends seems like a great idea. An utterly wonderful idea, if dorm-room movie marathons, late night convenience store raids and group chat antics are anything to go by.

Akaashi Keiji was studying English in Tokyo, which was going quite well in his opinion (his parents did not feel the same, and were threatening to force him to move back in with them, half a city away from campus, so that he could study more, but no surprise there). Most days are stressful, trying to keep on top of his workload, keep up with Kenma in their biweekly video-game contest, keep his setting and stamina up to scratch for the university’s recreational volleyball league, keeping up with his parents’ constantly changing expectations. Life felt a lot like a race, so Keiji was glad for the breaks he could get. And maybe he took too many breaks just to lie on his bed and eat cereal, but sometimes just letting himself think and feel and process and relax, sometimes that felt a lot like being free.

“I swear, this class will be the death of me.” Ennoshita Chikara, Karasuno ex-captain and first year film student grovelled melodramatically, running his hands through his short hair, furrowing his forehead in a perfectly accurate impression of what Keiji was feeling.

His eyes snapped over to the quiet boy, making sure his theatrics has been recognised and he wasn’t just that weirdo who was talking to thin air again (certain things about your sex life are better left unsaid when you’re drunk and the shadowy figure you thought was your friend was just a really tall potted plant).

Keiji cleared his throat, as softly as he could in the quiet echoey courtyard he was crossing to get back to his dorm. “You’re not wrong, Ennoshita-kun. Creative Writing and our homework is just to write better than we did last time! No wonder I’m failing, there’s no structure.”

Ennoshita almost seemed taken aback at the outburst from the notoriously mysterious and quiet boy, and who could blame him? “Well, uhhh, there is actually some structure...does the professor’s personal advice not help you?”

Keiji snorted, watching his breath cloud the air as he started walking a bit faster — he forgot gloves on the day Hell froze over. “Try writing about something you actually care about,” he quoted, pouring every ounce of sarcastic energy he had into it, “that might make it easier.” The taller boy chuckled, rubbing a hand over his slightly stubbly chin.

“Damn — yikes, that’s a bit harsh.” Keiji forced a short laugh in reaction. Ennoshita glanced up at the sky, the clear white-blue of winter, before continuing. “But hey, if you ever need any help, feel free to bounce ideas off of me.”

Keiji nodded slowly, every single stupid perfectionist instinct inside his head yelling at him that he should be able to do it himself, alone, independent. “I think I’d like that.” He reported, quietly, eyes averted. “I’ll call you.”

“And I’ll hold you to that.” Ennoshita seemed overly cheery when he hugged his friend goodbye at his dorm block.

 

Keiji knew something was wrong the second he walked into the corridor his dorm was on — something was offputting. He couldn’t quite figure out what. All the lights were off, but that was normal. The weird stain (potentially pasta sauce) on the wall opposite Oikawa- and Iwaizumi-san’s room had always been there, and they still had Oikawa-san’s pink fairy lights hanging around their doorframe. Maybe there was a new unecessary inspirational quote (Oikawa-san again) adding to the chaos of their otherwise perfectly functional ‘Floor 4 4Evah Message Board’.

Maybe Tendou-san had changed the colour of the ‘Welcome Motherfuckers’ welcome mat he had outside his and Ushijima-san’s room, because that just seemed like something Tendou would do — the boy had caused so many scandals with practical joke wars on other floors that he was infamous within the university now (and Keiji had woken up to Supersoaker battles in the communal kitchen between him and the endearing idiot Bokuto-san trying to restore Floor 7’s honour too many times to care at this point).

Or maybe Oikawa-san had finally made good on his promise and the ghost of the dead Ushijima-san was actually haunting the corridor. Keiji shuddered. Hopefully not.

Soft instrumental music was spilling from his dorm room —Keiji smiled unconsciously. Kenma must have left his Switch on with the volume up playing Zelda again. Speaking of Kenma, Keiji found him in the communal kitchen, holding a mug in one hand and an...odd fluffy bundle in the other. The smell of cheap chicken ramen dragged Keiji to his senses — he had had breakfast two hours ago but damnit he was hungry for soba.

“Kenma?” Keiji intercepted the small, slouching figure before he could retreat back into their room. “What have you got there?”

Kenma looked up at him, only just then acknowledging the other boy’s presence. His round eyes were sleepy, shoulder-length hair half blond and half black, still sleep-tangled. “A cookie in a mug.”

Keiji blinked slowly. That was not the answer he had been expecting. The furry object squirmed a little in Kenma’s hold. But sure enough, there was a cookie baked into the bottom of his mug — and damn, Keiji was still hungry. But his roommate was also still holding a very alive and unexplained object that was...mewling? He was officially confused, and that doesn’t happen too often.

He affixed his drowsy roommate with a stare that left Bokuto-san frozen in shock when he used it during their high-school days. Kenma let out a fourteen-second long sigh.

“I found a kitten.” He hoisted the bundle onto his shoulder with one hand and, sure enough, a set of green-gold eyes blinked back at Keiji out of the mass of pale-gold fur.

‘Ennoshita-kun would love this little guy’, Keiji mused. So would our writing professor. ‘He’s like the first growth of grass in the hazy hot summer-autumn transition. Maybe I could write about that?’

Then, suddenly, he was snapped back to reality — he was in college dorms with a very strict no-pets policy. And his roommate had apparently adopted a kitten. This is fine. He tried to convince his mind, to no avail.

 

THE BOIS

Owl Jr: Kenma has adopted a kitten.

Owl Jr: Pets are not allowed under any circumstances.

Owl Jr: Help.

ApplePi: traitor

ApplePi: me and my new favourite roommate hate you now

Owl Jr: What did I do to deserve this?

Owl Sñr: WAIT KENMAAAAAAAA

Owl Sñr: WHERE IS THE CATTTTT CAN I PET IT bleaseeeee

Owl Sñr: im sobhinh pleasd

Extraterrestrial: omw

Kuron: kenma I love you I’m running up the stairs as we speak

Owl Sñr: he’s lyinnggggf we’re on the same lift

Kuron: bro! I trusted you :,(

 

As he had half-expected, no one listened to Keiji’s minor concern that they could get chucked out of the university as a whole for breaching the student living contract. He was still disappointed about how enthusiastic and oddly responsible everyone was acting at the prospect of a totally illegal pet, so he sat in his favourite chair in the dorm room he and Kenma shared, offering suffering sighs and emotionally drained glares and as he ate instant ramen out of a saucepan with a plastic knife (not by choice — dorm living was tough).

Bokuto-san has been quiet, almost thoughtful for a while. But, being Bokuto-san, he couldn’t stay quiet for long. Golden eyes lit up and he started practically vibrating with excitement.

‘Oh, please say something sensible’, Keiji begged internally.

“The little guy kinda looks like grilled chicken, doesn’t he?!” His senpai blurted, gesturing dramatically at the cat now curled up and sleeping on Kenma’s beanbag chair.

Kenma grunted a noncommittal agreement.

Kuroo-san tilted his head in confusion, a slight scowl forming as peers around Kenma’s bed frame from his perch on Keiji’s desk, squinting at the little nightmare kitten as if seeing it more clearly might help the golden-white striped adorable tiny cute disaster look any more liked a cooked meat product.

Oikawa-san didn’t even look up from where he was reclined across Keiji’s bed, face mask still on despite it definitely having been more than ten minutes, now a little dried and cracked, obviously trying to contemplate the universe and his own existence in peace and quiet.

“Sure thing, Kou-chan.” He sighed his affirmation quietly. Oikawa-san seemed a little broken that day. Keiji made a mental note to schedule in a late-night emotional grocery trip with him ASAP, because that was how he talked to Oikawa-san. Everyone had their habits.

This was enough to convince Bokuto-san that his idea was the best there had ever been since he decided to combine every available breakfast food in the student cafeteria into a ‘Miso-Mash Soup’ (which was the most disgusting thing on Earth according to everyone bar the self-claimed genius inventor himself).

He shooed Keiji off of his comfy spot in his comfy computer chair, gently lifted the drowsy cat from the beanbag, only to immediately step onto the very unstable rolling chair he had claimed, swing the hapless kitten into the Lion King pose and yell at the top of his lungs at eleven in the morning on a Thursday (when A Lot of nearby students are still sleeping or, in Keiji’s case, would like to be) “I CROWN YOU YAKITORI!”

And that was the day Oikawa-san got a video of Bokuto-san falling forwards off of a moving computer chair and ending up with his face smushed against the window, sobbing, a very unimpressed cat pawing at his backside. “And that will be blackmail material until the day that you die,” the overly-angelic setter whispered to himself like a prayer, holding his phone close to his chest, gazing up at the cracked ceiling like he was expecting answers from it.

“My son is not being named after chicken skewers.” Kenma protested weakly, half an eye still on his game, uncaring to Bokuto-san’s screams (which were quite thankfully muffled by the window).

“I hope my chair is alright.” Keiji muttered unconsciously, trying to back away from all the drama, potential serious injuries and complete disregard for student living contracts that he had just witnessed.

“AAKKGGHAAAASSSHHIIIII!” His ex-captain cried, owl-hair sticking up even more crazilythsn usual as he finally detached his face from the window. “I could have DIED and you care about a material object!”

“Akaashi, I love you.” Kuroo-san chortled, before devolving into full-on hyena laughter.

It’s at times like these, that Keiji can’t help but laugh.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! I hope you enjoyed. Please leave kudos and comments if you did. I’ll update as frequently as possible. Find me on Tumblr @parabolicplanecrash


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